WoW WotLK Guide – Tanking Changes

Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard’s latest expansion pack for World of Warcraft, has brought with it some of the most significant changes to date. With this expansion, Blizzard has not only changed the basic components of the game, but also, on a couple of occasions, the actual dynamics of the game. Changes to the tank fall into this category.

Tanking, being a relatively simple concept, hasn’t been one of those things that has changed noticeably over the years. It has always allowed almost any class with better armor, high stamina, and the ability to taunt and distract enemies to take the hits while other classes do the damage (and get the rewards).

In Wrath of the Lich King, however, the introduction of the Death Knight (a fourth class, with the ability to tank when necessary), has brought with it a number of changes to tanking dynamics. To clarify, the Death Knight’s influence on these changes doesn’t mean that only they will see the benefit of them; all classes will be affected, including fighters (which have been a very “stable” class for some time now). In fact, until the stats of paladins and druids were improved, warriors were the only ones capable of sustaining a raid in the original 1-60 content.

This brings us back to today’s WoW, where Paladins, Druids, Warriors, and Death Knights are all set up to make them equally viable for tanking raid content. Each class build will benefit from a number of aggressive AoE abilities, allowing them to build their threat level and deal damage; this will allow them to have up to four raid trash mobs simultaneously, or a full boss.

On top of this, players will no longer have to sweat as much from the threat of crushing blows, as now only enemies that are at least four levels above them (and no raid enemies will be above level 83). This move will, at the very least, lessen the concern of being KOed in one hit by a raid boss.

These talent building benefits will be offset to some degree by defense stat dilution (inability to stack defense rating, dodge and parry stars to become a better warrior). However, despite these tanky changes making it a bit easier for all four classes with tanky builds (and the warriors will most likely face more competition than they were used to), it’s almost certainly that warriors will continue to be the best at what they do.